Imogen Robertson - Circle of Shadows

‘Manners, Pegel.’ Manzerotti’s voice spoke slowly from the window where he leaned, half-watching the activity in the courtyard. The youth rolled his eyes and sighed lustily but stood, rather awkwardly, nonetheless, and made a bow. ‘This, Mr Crowther, Mrs Westerman, is Jacob Pegel.’

‘Delighted,’ Harriet murmured and examined the youth more closely. He looked away.

‘Pegel is a … friend of mine, who has a talent for discovering all sorts of interesting information.’

‘Another spy then?’ Crowther asked, and Harriet saw Pegel blush under his purple bruises.

‘Ignore Mr Crowther,’ Manzerotti said. He joined Pegel behind Swann’s desk and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘His manners are worse than yours. Tell them.’

‘If you wish it, Philippe,’ the youth said rather stiffly, then he continued in rapid, rather rough-edged French. ‘I have got my paws on a mound of information about a group active in Maulberg. Call themselves the Minervals. I have lists of their members and a number of instructions going back and forth in cipher, and I’ve had a look at a fair few of their letters in plain text. They have a presence in various states in Germany, but they are most proud of the stranglehold they have over Maulberg. I have a note from last year speaking of Maulberg as a paradigm for the new world order.’

‘How did you break the cipher?’ Harriet said.

He shrugged. ‘I’m cleverer than they are.’

Crowther took a seat. ‘Are our victims on your membership list? Or do the instructions include their death warrants?’

Pegel glanced at Manzerotti.

‘Mr Pegel,’ Crowther said with a slight drawl, ‘I assume that what you have discovered from your espionage has a bearing on the murders in Ulrichsberg. I cannot believe we have been dragged from our coffee merely to hear you boast.’

Pegel looked at him with his head on one side and folded his arms. ‘Look, Mr Crowther, all I know of you is that you are a competent anatomist, you left one of Manzerotti’s men to be torn about by the mob — Johannes was his name, I think — and you were just quite rude to me. What gives you the right to sit down and look at me as if you are settling in for an interrogation?’

Harriet had never heard Crowther being spoken to in that fashion. He looked at Pegel as if he had two heads. He then put his fingertips together and opened his mouth to reply.

‘Forgive Pegel, Gabriel,’ Manzerotti said quickly. ‘He is very tired.’ He then turned towards the boy. ‘Pegel, my dear, Johannes did work for me I do not think I would ever ask of you. He also killed a number of people, including this lady’s husband.’

‘Oh.’

‘So you see, you cannot blame them for taking against my old friend.’

‘And I am a great deal more than competent,’ Crowther said.

Pegel unfolded his arms and clasped his hands behind his back instead. Then cleared his throat. ‘The members of the organisation call themselves the Minervals, as I say. There is, or rather was, a circle of seven individuals at Maulberg, who seemed to hold the reins of the state.’

‘And their symbol is the owl,’ Harriet said.

Pegel rocked on his heels. ‘Err, yes.’ Harriet thought she saw Manzerotti’s mouth twitch into a smile.

‘And am I right in thinking the names of those seven are our victims and Chancellor Swann?’

‘Yes. Honestly, you are good!’ Pegel said, grinning at her.

‘But this marriage was not their design, was it?’ Crowther said. ‘Even before someone began to kill them in this foul way, they had begun to lose their influence. Their control. So what made things go so terribly wrong for them?’

Pegel sat down again at the desk and started to rub his right ankle. ‘They spilled some ink on that subject, as you can imagine. There were words about the influence of “John Bull.”’

‘That must be Colonel Padfield,’ Harriet said, and she saw Manzerotti nod.

‘… and of the Toy Man.’

‘The Toy Man?’ Harriet repeated. ‘Count Frenzel, I suppose. He did collect automata once, the Al-Saids mentioned it.’

‘They are only referred to by those names. Then, towards the end of the year they speak about the unfortunate losses in their circle. Remember, Mrs Westerman, I am talking about letters written in plain language. Only when they wrote in code did they name names, state facts.’

‘But they did not see those deaths as suspicious?’

‘As I said, the word used was “unfortunate”. What has been said since you threw the cat amongst the pigeons, I can’t say.’

Crowther examined his cuffs. ‘The note Mrs Westerman found in Swann’s office?’

‘From …’ Pegel glanced at Manzerotti. ‘A gentleman in Leuchtenstadt. A suggestion of who to approach, and hopefully recruit, in the party arriving with the new Duchess. It seems events here have come too thick and fast for news to get to Leuchtenstadt.’

‘How did you manage to discover so much about them, Mr Pegel?’ Harriet asked.

‘Oh, a little play-acting. Best way to get an idea of an organisation is to make it think it is under attack. They recruit among the various orders of Freemasonry, so I made them think one of those orders, the Rosicrucians, were cutting up rough.’ He shrugged.

Harriet got to her feet. ‘So what is their aim?’

‘In general? Oh you know, a New World Order, universal brotherhood and justice, no property, no states … that sort of thing.’

‘That certainly would be new,’ Crowther said dryly.

Pegel gave a snort of laughter and Harriet found herself thinking he could only just be out of the schoolroom. ‘So who gives the orders, who leads?’ she demanded. ‘Swann said something about “secret superiors”.’

Manzerotti straightened and left his post at the window. ‘You must indulge the performer in me on that point. You will know of them soon enough. It’s really quite entertaining. Then I do have a rather dark sense of humour.’

Harriet looked at him steadily and he smiled, showing his white sharp teeth, then she turned back to Pegel. ‘And once they held power in Maulberg, Mr Pegel? What did they do with it? There is no universal brotherhood here.’

Pegel had the trick of youth in that his mood seemed able to switch in moments. He suddenly looked faintly miserable. ‘They did what everyone with power does in my experience, Mrs Westerman. They spent most of their energies trying to hang onto it. I imagine they told themselves that others of their kind were moving into positions of power in other states, then these “superiors” would give the word and the New World Order would magic itself into being.’

‘As lead magically transforms to gold,’ Crowther said darkly.

‘That’s it exactly, Mr Crowther!’ Pegel said, and in his enthusiasm leaned on his bad ankle and winced. ‘And just like alchemy, you end up with lead and a nasty smell.’ Even the corner of Crowther’s mouth twitched at that.

Pegel was still grinning at the idea when Harriet spoke again. ‘I suspect someone is taking a very personal revenge, Mr Pegel. Are there any references to them having done great damage to anyone? Did you see the name Kastner mentioned anywhere?’

He shook his head. ‘Mostly petty shufflings, as far as I can tell. Though after the deaths of Raben and Warburg, they talked about how cleverly they had avoided the danger posed by the Carpenter’s daughter. It was as if they wished to encourage themselves. Whatever the plot was, they seemed to think they had been very clever.’

‘I wonder if that was Frau Kastner.’

Manzerotti nodded. ‘Kastner derives from a word for Carpenter.’

‘So they were responsible for her slander. What a thing to boast over,’ Harriet said quietly.